Adolescence is a modern construct and very American in so many ways.

If there was ever a time to boil up some grits it is now.

I take mentoring very seriously and I am on the board of an organization called Girls Write Now, where we match teen girls and writing mentors because it changes their lives.

Remember that the writing itself is good for you. If your story is so close to home that you are afraid to write it, it probably means you need to write it.

When you write a novel, you make other people see your imaginary friends.

I take mentoring very seriously and as a result I hardly get any work done during the school year.

This is what I have come to know: Our past is never passed and there is no such thing as moving on. But there is this telling and there is such a thing as passing through.

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.

Abandonment doesn't have the sharp but dissipating sting of a slap. It's like a punch to the gut, bruising your skin and driving the precious air from your body.

My first novel, Leaving Atlanta, took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.

It's funny how three or four notes of anger can be struck at once, creating the perfect chord of fury.

I've done some stupid things I regret, but I've managed to keep my integrity. Which is important because integrity is fragile. Break it once and it's gone forever.

Every year I volunteer at a hospital on Thanksgiving, deep-frying turkeys in the children's burn unit. I do it just to see the looks on their little "faces."

I believe in the power of journalism. To make informed decisions, you have to have an understanding of the dynamics of a situation. And journalism does bridge gaps and creates dialogue.

What volunteers bring is the human touch, the individual, caring approach that no government program, however well-meaning and well- executed, can deliver.

I've already heard from some military commanders who feel they've been undercut by the vice president of the United States, and there's a lot of justification for their view.

There are some heads which have no windows, and the day can never strike from above; nothing enters from heavenard.

We are more afraid of excellence than of failure.

I'd love to do something on Broadway. I'd love to spend some time in New York.

We should not accept in silence the benefactions of God, but return thanks for them.

I was up late last night yapping about the elections on CNN and up early this morning doing the same thing in my daughter's kindergarten class.